Night of the Hunter
by vox populi 12
Summary: In a world where Voldemort never fell, Harry bears even deeper scars. Built into a killing machine, he must now complete his quest to find and destroy all of Voledemort's horcruxes, but he may just destroy himself in the process. AU Grey!Harry slash?
1. Chapter 1

Prologue-Remnant of War

Disclaimer- not mine, never will be.

A/N- This is the first chapter of a story I've decided to call the Vengeance Saga. I have a fair bit planned out, though updates may be erratic. Please read and review, I want to continue with this.

"Who do you hate, Harry?"

The voice had always been there, training him, breaking him apart, piecing him back together and polishing him until he was the sharp end of a spear, aimed directly at the heart of the enemy.

Harry knew the answer, had known the answer since he was a year old.

"Voldemort."

A burning fire consumed his heart as he said this name, the name of the enemy, the murderer of his parents, the wizard Harry had trained for ten years to kill.

"Repeat the story for me, Harry."

He knew the story, had heard it every day since he was one, had had it sung to him like a lullaby at night.

"Voldemort was after me, he found the house my parents had in Godric's Hollow with the traitor, Peter Pettigrew's help. He broke in, he killed my dad first. Then he moved upstairs, where my mother was shielding me." Harry hesitated here for a moment. "He laughed when he killed her. He was still laughing when you and Dumbledore arrived. Dumbledore fought him off before he could attack me, you killed Pettigrew."

"How did I kill him, harry?"

Harry looked down at the floor for a moment before responding. "You used a spell that tore him limb from limb."

Harry heard the pleasure in the voice as he said this. He felt some small pleasure of his own, somewhere.

The voice spoke again. "Harry, tomorrow you will board the Hogwarts Express. You will be surrounded by people who do not understand, who cannot understand your duty. You must not waver, you must not break, and your duty must be fulfilled. Harry, what is your duty?"

Harry felt the climax of the speech, relished in the words as he spoke them.

"To kill Voldemort."

"How."

"I will destroy him, and laugh."

Sirius Black ruffled his godson's raven black hair. "Good, Harry. I would expect nothing less."


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer-**Not mine, all belongs to JK and a bunch of different companies.

**Chapter 1. Stories and Choices**

"_Remember your duty, Harry."_

Sirius's voice rang in Harry's head as he moved down the hallway of the crowded Hogwarts Express. He glanced out the window to see that the scarlet train had picked up speed, and was now leaving the city of London behind. Turning back from the window, he realized that he was one of the last still outside of the compartments, and quickly gathered his things to try and find a seat.

"_What house do you wish to be sorted into, Harry?_

_ Harry replied immediately, the words slipping off his tongue like melted butter. "Slytherin House."_

_ "And why do you wish to be sorted into Slytherin?"_

_ "To get close to the Death Eater families."_

_ "And what will you do once you are close to them, Harry?" _

_ There was a gleam in Sirius's eye as he asked this, and Harry knew that his godfather relished the answer._

_ "I'll kill them."_

Harry moved towards the back of the train, where he knew the Slytherin's usually sat, intending to make friends with them before he even arrived at Hogwarts. As he came to the rear of the train, he recognized many of the Slytherins from the photographs Sirius had showed him. There was Tarus Rosier, spread languidly across two seats, his brown hair nearly obscuring his eyes, looking for all the world as if he owned the place. Across from him sat Amelia Vel Dor, the daughter of a prestigious foreign family who had joined the Dark Lord's cause. On the other side of the aisle, Harry spotted Orion Black, the son of Sirius's brother Regulus, who was very high in the Death Eater ranks. He was chatting to Cadmus Lestrange, the son of Rodulphus and Bellatrix. Cadmus was barely listening. Instead, he was absently twirling his hawthorn wand on his fingertips, his dark eyes roaming all over the train, looking every bit as mad as his parents were.

Harry began to move toward a compartment of Slytherins he did not know, assuming they must be first years, when he stopped in sudden shock, and looked all around him, realizing that there was someone missing. Nowhere did he see a hint of white blond hair.

Harry had been told multiple times by Sirius that the Malfoy heir was a first year as well, but he was nowhere in the Slytherin compartments. Quickly backtracking his way down the train, he finally spotted the characteristic Malfoy features in a compartment by the Gryffindor's.

Opening up the door, Harry could see that Malfoy was sitting with two other people, one of them a girl with somewhat bushy brown hair, the other a boy with nearly copper colored hair and a tan face.

Harry covered his surprise. "Can I sit here," he asked. "Everywhere else is full."

"Sure," the boy with the copper hair replied, holding out his hand. "My names Evander, Evander Hyperion."

Harry quickly shook the boy's hand. He stowed his things in the top of the compartment and took a seat.

"Hermione Granger," the girl told him as he sat down.

"Pleasure to meet you," Harry replied, before turning to the last occupant of this compartment.

"Draco Malfoy," the boy said quickly, also extending his hand for Harry to shake. Harry took it and replied with his own name.

The four sat in silence for some moments, until Hermione spoke up.

"Excuse me," she said, "But ever since I got on the train, I've been hearing about this war that's going on, and I really don't understand it. You see, I'm-," she frowned, as if trying to remember the word. "Muggleborn, I think it was."

Harry glanced at his companions, but it was Draco who spoke first.

"The war is our world, Hermione," he said. "It's been going on for almost twenty years now, without pause, and everything is basically in chaos."

"But why?" she asked. "Why are you, we I mean, at war?"

Harry made to reply, but it was again Draco who spoke.

"There's this dark wizard," he said. "His name is," here he hesitated, but eventually continued on, albeit in a whisper, "Voldemort." Draco took a deep breath after saying this. "Voldemort is one of the most powerful wizards on the planet, he's virtually unstoppable. Not to mention the fact that he has about seven thousand followers, called Death Eaters, all over the world." Draco glanced away for a second. "I'm not proud to say that my parents are Death Eaters," he said, barely audibly. Harry looked at him in shock. Never would he have thought the Malfoy heir would be saying such things. Draco saw Harry looking at him, and his voice became stronger and more assured. "I just want you to know where I stand," he said. "I've grown up with the Dark Lord, and I have no wish of serving him."

Harry was stunned speechless. Evander then picked up the thread of the story.

"Voldemort's not actually in charge (Harry registered the use of the name) but he may as well be. I've only lived here for five years, before that I lived in France, but our house has already been attacked four times. The last time was three months ago, we barely escaped with our lives. My mother came here to work for the Ministry as a security specialist," he answered in reply to their questioning stares.

"There's a ministry!," Hermione intoned. "But, shouldn't they be able to stop him?" Hermione was cut off as Evander shook his head sadly.

"There's barely a ministry," he answered. "About thirteen years ago, Voldemort led a huge part of his force into the Ministry itself. They blew right through Trafalgar Square to do it, killed like three hundred muggles. Once in the Ministry, it was a slaughter. Voldemort himself killed the minister, and then he collapsed six floors of the building on everybody's head, even a part of his own army. The only thing that stopped him taking over the wizarding world was that Dumbledore, that's the Hogwarts Headmaster, showed up and dueled him off."

"So Dumbledore is-," Hermione started.

"Really powerful too," Evander stated. "And the only one who's ever fought Voldemort and lived, a few times actually."

"Bartemius Crouch is the Minister now," said Draco. "And he's about as bad as Voldemort. He let's the Aurors, those are the dark wizard catchers, kill people without a trial."

Harry finally spoke up. "He sort of has to," he said. "Ever since Azkaban fell, there's no place to keep somebody once they've captured them." Sirius had thought that Barty Crouch had the right idea for dealing with Death Eaters. _No mercy, _he would always say.

"Azkaban?" Hermione questioned.

"It was the wizarding prison," Evander told her. "It used to be guarded by Dementors, creatures that suck out your soul, (Hermione gasped) but Voldemort convinced them to join him. Now he runs the island, and uses it as a prison for our side. He breeds the Dementors, too. There used to be only a few hundred, now they number in the thousands."

"No place is safe from Voldemort anymore," said Harry. "Every wizarding village from here to Spain is half in ruins, and there are more attacks every day. You know the place where you went to get your supplies, Diagon Alley?" Hermione nodded. "It used to be bustling, the center of wizarding London. Now there are six or seven stores. Even the ice cream place man got dragged off. And nobody outside of Europe wants to get involved."

"That's awful," said Hermione. "What about Hogwarts?" she asked. "Is it safe?"

"Safer than most places," said Draco. "The shields are almost impenetrable, and it has its own security force, outside of Ministry control.

"There wasn't a separate security force until about four years ago," began Evander. "Voldemort managed to get through the shields, and he and his army were about halfway across the viaduct when Dumbledore met him. I heard it was the longest duel in history. Dumbledore ended up blowing half the viaduct to smithereens to stop the Dark Lord. Ever since then, Dumbledore has kept a force of about fifty wizards and witches stationed on the Hogwarts grounds all year long in case Voldemort ever decides to try that again, which he probably will."

"And then you have all the copycat dark wizards running around-,"

Harry drifted off as the others continued their discussion of the Dark Lord's exploits. He felt vaguely sorry for Hermione, being pulled into the chaos that was their world, but quickly banished the thought. Sirius had been right. Just several hours had gone by, and he was already ready forgetting his duty, his quest. Sighing, he turned to look out at the night cloaked world, and saw Hogwarts in the distance. His breath caught in his throat at the sight of the towers and the bridges, of the brilliant lights reflecting off the lake, and once again, his duty slipped his mind.

**A/N-**I know that that sounds very apocalyptic, but it's supposed to. I've read fics before where Voldemort never fell, and nothing much has happened. If Voldemort was allowed to run amok for an extra thirteen years, I'm pretty sure the wizarding world would be at its breaking point. So I just wanted to introduce some characters and tell some of the history of what's been happening. Obviously a lot more to come. Like I said, I have a fair bit planned out, though updates may be sporadic. They'll probably be less sporadic if you read and review, so please do, I want to continue this.


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